Happiest Season

Much like all the other queers we know, we were very excited when we first heard about the film Happiest Season. A fun lesbian holiday rom-com? Yes please! A star-studded cast featuring queer women as lead characters is a big deal, and something the lesbian community desperately deserves. It’s really the first time we’ve seen a big budget lesbian film in this genre from a major streaming giant like Hulu, AND it was written and directed by a queer woman. It really ticked all the boxes for us when we first started seeing teasers. Faves like Kristen Stewart, Daniel Levy, and Aubrey Plaza, what could go wrong!? While it absolutely is a positive sign that this movie got made, the film really disappointed a lot of people (including us). A lot of the LGBTQ+ community appreciated the queer representation but had a lot of issues with how it was presented. It’s definitely marketed as a light-hearted romantic comedy with happy, feel good vibes and gay characters. But in reality, the premise is an emotional coming out story about going back in the closet, and the plot is stuffed full of drama and lies. Yes it’s amazing to have some mainstream lesbian representation on screen, but is it enough to overlook the film’s many faults? And if the queer representation is not positive representation, what about all the non-queer people who will watch this movie? They might take it at face value without learning anything about the nuance of the queer experience or about why positive LGBTQ+ representation matters in the first place. In fact, the reason why we decided to write this review is because of a family friend who reached out to ask our opinion of the film as queer women. As a straight, middle-aged, cis white man who really enjoyed Happiest Season, he wanted to make sure he wasn’t seeing it through a “hetero lens” (his words not ours, cool right!?). And so here we offer you a very lesbian review of Hulu’s Happiest Season. Happiest Season follows lesbian couple Abby (Kristen Stewart), and Harper (Mackenzie Davis) and their holiday shenanigans. The film opens with arguably the only sweet scene between the two of them, giving us just a small taste of their relationship. Harper invites Abby home to meet her family for the holidays, and we learn that Abby plans to propose to her on Christmas Day. The early scenes of the couple really aren’t quite enough to show us the foundation of their relationship, and even the opening credits of the film feel like an afterthought meant to establish that foundation. Almost immediately the two are headed home for the holidays and Harper drops a major bomb on Abby. She tells her she lied about coming out to her family a year ago, and they don’t know she’s gay or in a relationship. In our first glimpse at what will become Harper’s ongoing toxic behaviour, she asks Abby to closet herself and be her “straight roommate” for the holiday season. (Any queer person knows how cringy this is and many can even relate!). Of course they are already on their way to Harper’s family home, giving Abby no way out of the impending uncomfortable situation. What follows is even more disappointing. Harper constantly fails to defend Abby while her family is horrible to her, and spends all of her time trying to impress her dad, old friends and even an ex-boyfriend. She begs for her family’s approval at every turn, while being incredibly inconsiderate toward her partner. She doesn’t spend any time with Abby and takes out all of her stress and frustrations on her. She abandons her at family functions and allows her to be uninvited from a holiday event. She introduces Abby as her roommate at every opportunity, and doesn’t let on to anyone (not even her flirty ex-boyfriend) that she’s in a serious long-term relationship. It’s truly uncomfortable to watch as their relationship slowly falls apart before your eyes. We also meet Riley (Aubrey Plaza) who was Harper’s ex from high school, and learn that Harper outed her in a horribly traumatic